In this interview, we delve into the world of sustainable architecture and environmental integration through the story of the Amazon MXP3 Logistics Hub, a large-scale project that required years of commitment and dedication from the Studio di Architettura Carlo Rosso - Emanuela Fornaro. Founded in Vercelli in 1994, the studio boasts nearly 30 years of experience in both public and private architecture. The Amazon MXP3 Logistics Hub, built on an area of 160,000 square meters, represents a tangible example of how architecture can harmoniously blend with the surrounding environment. Through the intervention of Carlo Rosso Fornaro and his team, the logistics building is transformed into a work that not only fits into the landscape but actively contributes to its conservation and enhancement. Let's discover the details of this project and the philosophical approach that guided each phase.
Our studio is an architecture studio, born in Vercelli in 1994, and we are approaching 30 years of activity. Our focus has been mainly on public and private architecture.
Today we will talk about a project that is very dear to us, which we completed a few months ago, at the beginning of April, and it engaged us for 6 years. The project of the Amazon MXP3 logistics hub. It is a very extensive project. In fact, to get an idea of what the practical project was like, we need to give some numbers to understand: the logistics hub covers an area of 160,000 square meters, which is about 20 football fields, just to realize the size. And all the green area we directly worked on is an area of 115 square meters where we planted around 20,000 tall trees, 7,500 shrubs, not to mention all the ground cover plants.
What is certainly the most important aspect was the ability to work on these very large spaces to mitigate the huge impact that this building would have on the surrounding landscape, so we tried to recover, as you say, it has a great impact on our landscape, to recover the identifying memory of the agricultural landscape.
In the first lots, they were more varied, however, always native. Instead, in the second lot, we mainly dealt with the entire green fence part that we studied specifically for that location. And instead, in the last lot, the expansion one, we focused more specifically with a specific idea, that of bringing back the appearance of the Po Valley, especially the poplar. So this camouflage effect will happen very quickly. Indeed, now, the period has been very long, between the initial 6 years, already the avenue we made, of 1 km with 400 plants, has already reached 10,000. Consider that, however, within 15 years, all these species of the first magnitude will be able to create a masking effect.
A phrase that I read many years ago, in a magazine, and has struck me until today, is a phrase by Lao Tsé, a Chinese philosopher who lived 2500 years ago: "The facade of a house belongs to the one who looks at it." It is very important because it expresses exactly the responsibility of the project, the ability of the viewer. For me, it represents precisely the responsibility in general of the figure of the architect, the figure of everyone, even citizens who should be more sensitized towards urban space. That is certainly a phrase that typifies us and that we appreciate. But precisely because in a phrase there is a world, there is a way of living, but above all because architecture has a primarily social purpose that is somewhat lost.
